CIA planes used Swedish airports

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At least two planes used by America's CIA have landed at Swedish airports, according to research by news agency TT. Arlanda, Örebro, Sturup and Bromma airports have all hosted the intelligence organisation's aircraft.

One of them has been at the prison base in Guantanamo.

Similar reports have come from Iceland, Norway, Denmark and the Baltic states. It is not known in what capacity the planes were in Sweden but they were mentioned in a news report which revealed how the CIA organises transport of prisoners.

The New York-based human rights organisation Human Rights Watch said that the Swedish government ought to investigate why planes known to have carried CIA prisoners, have been allowed to land in Sweden and what they were doing here.

"The public in every country where CIA planes land ought to ask what's going on," said Marc Garlasco, military analyst at HRW, to TT.

"And I'm certain that the Swedish public are wondering what the planes are doing in their country," he said.

On 9th September this year a Raytheon Hawker 800XP, a mid-size business jet which normally takes 6-8 passengers, with the registration number N168BF, landed at Sturup.

It is unclear how long it stayed at the Malmö airport, but it is known that the plane entered Danish airspace at 10.47am on the same day and that the destination was Farnborough airport in the UK.

It is also unclear where the plane came from. It was not previously linked with the CIA but it is owned by a company which has other planes used by the intelligence organisation.

In June 2002 another plane, with the registration number N50BH, landed at Arlanda, then touched down at Örebro airport for two days before continuing to Keflavik in Iceland with thirteen passengers. The details came from a source with access to the airport's traffic logs.

The same plane showed up in Norwegian airspace as recently as a month ago, according to Norway's media. And according to American reports, the plane has landed at least seven times at the Guantanamo base in Cuba.

In 2001 a CIA plane was used - after a request by the Swedish government and security services - to transport two Egyptians accused of terrorism back to Egypt from Bromma airport.

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